Everyone loves to root for the underdog. In Brooklyn Brothers Beat The Best, we get to root for the “undermoose”.

In this musically hilarious quarter-life crisis road movie, rookie writer-director Ryan O’Nan stars as Alex, who’s recently been dumped by his girlfriend and his band and who hates his drab job in a real estate office. Eventually his odd music gigs, including singing to kids while dressed like a moose, cause friction in his office and he loses his job. Jim, a fan of Alex’s music, convinces him to begin a journey across the nation on a battle of the bands tour. While on this bizarre trek they meet the lovely Cassidy, an inexperienced tour manager who will either take them to the next level or break Alex’s heart.

Filled with great cameos from Jason Ritter, Melissa Leo, Wilmer Valderrama, Andrew McCarthy and others, Brooklyn Brothers Beat The Best celebrates creativity and the healing power of friendship. The songs are so good you’ll be downloading its music onto your phone before the film is over. - James Faust / Dallas International Film Festival

What’s the worst thing that can happen to a movie character? Shot, stabbed, beaten, tortured? How about exiled, chased, shot, impaled, savaged by a pitbull, involved in a tractor crash, chucked off a cliff and forced to hide in 6 feet of human shit? Luckily, it couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy. Tyldum’s deliriously entertaining thriller, based on source material by bestselling Norwegian author, Jo Nesbø, stems from a simple but hugely satisfying idea: serve up an eminently hissable central character, in this case part-time art thief and full-time corporate douchebag Roger (Hennie, who looks like the love child of Steve Buscemi and Rupert Grint). Then sit back and smile as he tangles with the wrong folks and is subjected to the most humiliating indignities the smart, streamlined script can invent. Pure joy. - Tom Huddleston / Time Out London

Eleven year-old Cyril (Doret) tries to find his father, who has abandoned him to a care home, and retrieve his precious bicycle. During the search he clings to hairdresser Samantha (de France) who agrees to foster him at weekends. Yet Cyril won’t give up on his father. Or trouble.

In outline it sounds trite — a disenfranchised kid is turned around by a kindly stranger — but the Dardennes’ make it so much more. Raw but compassionate, naturalistic but compelling. If you’re looking to get into the Dardennes, this is a great place to start. - Empire Magazine

After a Montreal elementary school teacher commits suicide one night after class, she is replaced by Bachir Lazhar (Fellag), an Algerian immigrant seeking political refuge in Quebec. As Lazhar introduces traditional teaching methods to his new class, he begins to develop close relationships with two of his pupils: a boy traumatized by his discovery of the former teacher's body, and a girl whose interpretation of the event provokes unforeseen revelations. Produced by the team behind the Academy Award-nominated Incendies and directed by veteran filmmaker Philippe Falardeau, Monsieur Lazhar is one of the most acclaimed Québécois films of the last decade and Canada's submission for the 2011 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. - Toronto International Film Festival 2012

Roman, is an institutionalised young offender in Vienna, serving time for a violent crime. Parole is a prospect, though without any family or connections, he does not appear to be a prime candidate for reintegration into the community.

Given the option of a work-release programme, Roman takes up a job in a mortuary, shifting dead bodies. The work is physically and emotionally draining, and his co-workers are unfriendly, though he finds reason to be there when he comes across a body bag holding a woman who shares his surname. It occurs to Roman that this may be the mother who gave him up for adoption, and he begins to explore his past.

The restrained observational direction and the emotional intensity of the performances, particularly non-actor Thomas Schubert in the lead role, are the marks of a notable film with integrity and weight. - Michael Hayden, BFI London Film Festival, 2011

Daniel Barry, parish priest of Borrisokane, Co. Tipperary, feels like the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time. Although he works hard to fulfil his duty, he has nothing in common with his parishioners and secretly fears he has lost his vocation.

When forced by his Bishop to start a big fund-raising campaign, he attempts to reconcile his passion for film with his duty to the Church through the creation of the Stella Cinema.

But he faces plenty of opposition: from the Bishop and a number of influential parishioners who see film as a source of moral corruption; from locals; and ultimately from his own crisis of conscience. - Galway Film Fleadh 2011